…AK had sampling capability? Could it be done? Is there enough ram?
All the other machines can work with samples why not AK/A4?
Elektron has done and is doing amazing things with the Elektron lineup. And they respond to their fans. I don’t know about how you feel but wouln’t it be great to be able to layer samples along with the excellent analog OSC’s like in the Rytm?
It’s a tremendous amount to ask of Elektron and may be impossible but … is it possible?
I don’t think it’s possible.
But if you want to spice things up buy a sampler that can loop sounds and use it as an OSC.
The noise oscillator is digital isn’t it and there’s a lot of space in that section of the ui… maybe not full samples but adding some single-cycles would add loads to the sound creation possibilities of the Keys.
I already have OT, AR, and MM and am well set for samplers. It’s just the AK would be so much more diverse with samples. I should just try to make some of the sounds I’m hearing in my head on it with it’s ample capabilities. I am really longing for the sounds I got from my Blofeld but on my AK. Those ‘bell’ like crystal clear shimmery tones…
Good point, the noise could have selectable waves. The only problem is that I don’t think that the noise follows the keys/notes/pitch control. Elektron engineers would know if it is possible to change that. Then it could technically have four oscs per voice (2 analog + 1 sub + 1 digital)!
As far as TokyoDisco’s original post, I think you mean sample playback. I doubt it has sample capture capability.
Yes, I mean sample playback ability. Similar to what’s on the AR. What a beast it would be!
That’s why the Radikal Technologies Spectralis, as odd and highly more capable, and modular deep, still rules the house with analog and digital, and sampling and resampling…it simply rocks. Love the A4, but nowhere as fun as the Spekie. Full Samples run through filter banks make all the difference.
Never tried the Radikal Technologies Spectralis but being able to run samples through the AK’s filters along with its analog OSC’s and mix that all together would be amazing. Are there many synths these days that are analog with sample playback?
If AK/A4 had that ability it would make them stand out from the flood of emerging analog machines. And who better than Elektron with their fine history of merging analog and digital. Please Elektron…I can beg!
Actually, yeah, it would be really useful if noise itself could be tracked to the keyboard for pitched noise playing (is that even possible?) - then, as you say, if different waves could also be selected instead of noise… make it so Elektron! 
First, I do like the idea of them adding some cool single-cycle digital waveforms. That seems like it could actually be feasible on the current hardware given the digital noise generator. Best case scenario: something like Mutable Instruments’ Braids module, as an alternate machine for the VCOs.
Actual sampling and/or sample-based synthesis is unlikely to be possible without a hardware revision, though. There’s more to sampling, and especially to making samples sound musical in a subtractive synthesis context, than simply executing fnPlaySample().
@TokyoDisco: Food for thought on your specific wish for the clear bell-like tones of your old Blofeld: aren’t those sounds the Monomachine makes very well synthetically? Lots of dingdingclingclang in those FM machines, yeah? In which case you don’t even need a sampler to do Bandersong’s suggestion. All you need is CV-to-MIDI conversion and you could use the AK CV track to sequence the MnM, then route the audio into the AK and through all of its filter and FX goodness.
Or if you are dead set on sampling, likewise with any cheap hardware sampler you can find on Ebay/Craigslist.
In any event, AK already stands out from “the flood of emerging analog machines”. Most of them are not even remotely comparable. Simply having the multi-track sequencer makes the AK stand well apart. So you can beg, but Elektron is already far enough above the flood that it’s not an imperative for them to add sampling to the AK (especially when the AR, OT, MnM and MD all offer varying degrees of sample-fu).
You can do pitched noise sounds with the filter tracking set to 32, the A4’s two filters make for some really nice tuned noise patches.
Wavetable and granular ability for the Analog Four would be sound design heaven.
You can use the external inputs as an oscillator.
Input a sample, or line level from a mix of microphones, or … well, anything.
.
You could use your A4 to send CV triggers to an Alesis Trigger IO which can translate triggers to midi, then feeding notes a Korg Volca Sample.
Boom, samples in your A4 and sequenced by your A4, for $200 if you know how to shop.
If it is something you really need in order to realize your creative vision, it is absolutely possible and not prohibitively expensive. But if it’s just an empty acknowledgment of a machine’s perceived limitations because other machines have unique feature sets, then I really do not see the point.
i dont see this happening
what i could see happening is a monster keyboard that combines both the AK and Rytm into one unit… 12 tracks, 12 voices or something like that - with both the keyboard and the drum pads
talk about a beast…
[quote=““invisible acropolis””]
i dont see this happening
what i could see happening is a monster keyboard that combines both the AK and Rytm into one unit… 12 tracks, 12 voices or something like that - with both the keyboard and the drum pads
talk about a beast…
[/quote]
If Elektron were Korg. Yes, definitely.
But I highly doubt that type of product from Elektron.
.
They’ve never shown an inclination to that type of product, even when they had the opportunity to with the MD/MM.
This is all well and good but the volca sample doesn’t do chromatic playback of samples, right? I mean, it would if you loaded the same sample at different pitches but you can’t just choose one sample to play up and down the keyboard chromatically if my research is correct… as far as I know the only compact sampler on the market at the moment that can do something like that is the OP-1, which is overpriced if you’re only using it for sample playback. I wish Korg would come out with a volca sample keys edition or something… it’s really a hole in the market that I’m surprised nobody has attempted to fill yet…
Hopefully as 90s rave music becomes more fetishised/nostalgic there will be a resurgence of chromatic samplers 
Id agree to a point - their philosophy does seem to revolve around component pieces rather than all-in-one solutions … but its possible for people to change, so you never know
would you have expected something like overbridge according to their inclinations?
how about eurorack modules? would you expect something like that?
dont worry about compact… get a V-synth… man those things are fucking awesome, i loved mine and was totally gutted when i had to sell it
the varispeed stuff scales the sample with timestretching, etc., and it has comb filters that will either isolate or remove inharmonic content - but the pads and the d-beams modulating parameters while you play, holy shit its so good… you truly feel like you are in ‘the future’ when you are jamming on it
well, the reason why I want something compact is so I can take it to gigs easily. I don’t drive, and prefer to have a rather minimalist setup onstage. For home use I just use Renoise for sample-based composition.
As for the extra parameters, well I basically want something with the functionality/quirks of old sample tracker software… including the resampling artifacts (which I guess includes the ‘inharmonic content’ you refer to 
). Surely something relatively simple would be easy and cheap to produce inside a small box?!
For that waldorf sound maybe a small euro case (cell 48 maybe) and the waldorf nw1?
http://www.waldorf-music.info/nw1-overview
Thanks for all the great ideas everyone!
As it is the AK is pretty great and all these creative ideas to expand on its tonality really have given me a bit more perspective on just how much it is already capable of. I guess this is why I really like my Elektron gear.
Using the OSC ins - A great idea for sure.
I should run my MM into the audio ins of my AK and that alone would give me more digital sounds. I love analog but at the same time I love digital. And the MM’s FM certainly supplies what the AK lacks in that area.
Eurorack is also attractive and I’ve almost bought a case and power supply 4 or 5 times now. The Waldorf nw1 may be the piece that pushes me in that direction. Braids is the other one that almost makes me want to get into it.
This weekend if I have time I’ve got to try to make some bell like, dx7esqe, brittle, sterile tones on my AK. Who knows maybe AK has everything it needs already.